Marked for Eden Alderweireld
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eden Alderweireld
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The terraces5 Jan 2032
The mood at KV Oostende has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match5 Jan 2032
21 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad5 Jan 2032
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and KV Oostende have had the benefit of it.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
Niklas Neumann, 35, rolls back the years — 8.34
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Dries De Bruyne was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings29 Dec 2031
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Eden Alderweireld damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match27 Dec 2031
0‑3 against Westerlo, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KV Oostende
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Paulo Moura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad29 Dec 2031
The manager makes an example of Augusto Batalla
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
Nobody left the KV Oostende dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market29 Dec 2031
The name of Dries De Bruyne keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KV Oostende say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings22 Dec 2031
Successful dribbles: 54. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Eden Alderweireld damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings22 Dec 2031
Niklas Neumann, 34, rolls back the years — 8.21
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Dries De Bruyne was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Dec 2031
A season average of 7.26 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Dec 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adnan Fellaini, and the manager let it.